Introduction

Authentication is required when accessing the JS7 - REST Web Service API and when accessing the JS7 - Browser User Interface, i.e. the JOC Cockpit GUI.
Authentication is performed by a set of JS7 - Identity Services that support use of account/password and use of certificates.
Single-factor authentication and two-factor authentication methods are supported.

Authentication Methods

The following authentication methods are supported:

User Account/Password Authentication
- for use with the built-in account management of JOC Cockpit, see JS7 - JOC Identity Service and further Identity Services.
- for use with an LDAP based Directory Service such as e.g. Microsoft Active Directory®, see JS7 - LDAP Identity Service.
Mutual Authentication with Certificates
- X.509 compliant certificates can be used by any client (Browser Client, REST API Client).

Certificates can be used for mutual authentication:

The client (Browser Client, REST API Client) challenges the JOC Cockpit server to present its Server Authentication Certificate that will be verified by the client.
The JOC Cockpit server challenges the client to present its Client Authentication Certificate that is verified by JOC Cockpit.

With JOC Cockpit being set up for mutual authentication certificates can be used

to enforce two-factor authentication with clients having to provide a certificate and a user account/password,
to allow single-factor authentication using a certificate instead of user account/password.

This includes to require both user account/password authentication and certificate based authentication.

This boils down to use either account/password authentication or to allow certificate based authentication alternatively.